Help with layer blending/HDR

NightShadow · 18 Nov 2009 at 09:47

Hiya people!

I took quite a few pics whilst on a road trip in September and regret not using the tripod to get several exposures in some cases. I wondered if anybody was able to help me with the following piccy:

(Click for bigger version)

As you can see the background looks OK but the car is a bit dark (on my monitor at least), is there anything that can be done or is it too underexposed to actually be helped?

I have the full size image (only shot in JPG though

) and an old version of photoshop elements to work with.

D.P. · 18 Nov 2009 at 10:31

You can boost the shadow a little, but tbh, the quality form a jpeg wont really be worth it.

NightShadow · 18 Nov 2009 at 13:23

Looking at this I must have upped the cotrast on the original as the one I have off the memory card is lighter. Heres the result from Photomatrix:

http://www.ttop.nu/images/tmrx8.jpg

It's not bad but I think it could be better, I made a darker and lighter version in photoshop (not show how much I changed the exposure by for each) and then used Photomatrix to blend it and messed about with the sliders not really knowing entirely what I was doing. anybody care to give me some pointers?

D.P. · 18 Nov 2009 at 13:34

NightShadow said:
Looking at this I must have upped the cotrast on the original as the one I have off the memory card is lighter. Heres the result from Photomatrix:

http://www.ttop.nu/images/tmrx8.jpg

It's not bad but I think it could be better, I made a darker and lighter version in photoshop (not show how much I changed the exposure by for each) and then used Photomatrix to blend it and messed about with the sliders not really knowing entirely what I was doing. anybody care to give me some pointers?

Its pointless making different exposures from a jpeg and using photomatix.- yu only have the DR from a single exposure.

Just play in photoshop, increasing the shadow brightness.

martinturner · 18 Nov 2009 at 18:25

I think having a grey car on a grey road is not really doing it, but the biggest issue is the blown out sky. You need to either bracket for this type of shot or use some sort of ND grad. Ideally it needs a new sky. I have just duotoned and a dodge/burn in places.

Larger version here
http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/4456/rx8edit.jpg

DB_SamX · 18 Nov 2009 at 20:48

^Way more impressive than original.

NightShadow · 18 Nov 2009 at 22:32

Thanks for that Martin, looks good though not overly keen on duotoning. Have put dodge/burn to use on the original, never used them before! This is what I have come up with: